#witch work

[taigawitch]

Inheritances

Today is the anniversary of my Mom's passing.

It's been some years now. Time has lent perspective, synchronicity and natural magic have woven their spells and I have had time to think about inheritance.

I look around and see her dreams continue though me. I am called to working and understand this is 'our' way.

She always dreamed of a cottage in the country and here I am in that whitewashed stone built house that's old enough to have a 'new stove' that's probably 70 years old.

A place that has a name close enough to one she loved in fiction that it could be mistaken for the same.

She foraged and gardened all her life, loved the feel of her hands in the earth, whispered to plants and knew their ways and histories and as I walk the tracks and woods I find myself hearing her point out flowers I had no idea I knew.

Other things she carried for her time have come too. Though she was not given to being open about her ways she told of some things - obliquely, cryptically. Those tellings, I understand now, were enough - She knew that just as she had inherited 'the ways' so would I in my turn and then I would understand; and in the same way I find myself telling my own daughter fragments that when the time comes will be enough.

It's the reason for the title of this blog - it's acknowledging lineage - We have always been a witch.

[taigawitch]

Dreamworking

I dont know how it is for others - but its a thing for me. Sometimes its messages, sometimes its workings, sometimes its a teaching.

Its not always the most comfortable of things, and a real serious working dream usually means waking at 3 am soaking wet, ravenously hungry and with a raging thirst.

I think though its easier to talk about it descriptively, rather than try and talk about it as a structure.

So: A dreaming - a message from a person who had passed.

I'd worked with the woman before she passed. A few weeks after her funeral I was called in dream to a cabin in a very lush wooded area. Inside I realised that she was present, though I could not see her. (This is how it works for me - the deceased who have crossed over remain out of direct sight in dreamings, as though they are standing right behind me.)

She had an open suitcase on the floor with a Tarot Deck visible in it.

She asked me to tell her daughter, granddaughter and great-grandaughter that if there was anything they needed to ask they should ask her. That if it was possible to give an answer she would.

I recorded it in my journal and I did as asked. When I finally managed to get in touch with her granddaughter (who lives on the other side of the world) I sent her a pictue of what I'd seen. She let me know that she 'knows that place, I go stay there all the time'. And apparently the suitcase was like the blue one her greatgrandma had. And she reads the cards and knew which deck was being referenced from the colour.

The circle was closed.

[taigawitch]

Gifts from Spirit

Sometimes we get a very obvious thank you for what we do.

I was asked by a person to help with an entity that had been foisted on them in an act of duplicity. In journey they present as a bear spirit person. The work was done, the attachment was undone.

The next morning a bear had been left on my garden wall.

An other person came to me in dream. They presented as 'zebra' and lamented their situation. Not knowing who it was at first but recognising an urgent 'ask', I got me out of my bed at 3 in the morning and set to. It was not pretty, a devious one who claimed 'a contract', mis-sold to a vulnerable dupe I would say. But the work got done.

The next morning (late morning, I'd slept in) I got a call from the person, to say they just felt they 'had to let me know they'd got up that morning clear headed and written music for the first time in two long dark years'.

I went outside and a zebra had been left on my garden wall.

I still have them.

[taigawitch]

Disturbing Vision

I get visions. I've heard others describe being a witch/shamanic practitioner/ channel / as being a bit like a taxicab driving around with a 'for hire' light lit up - at least until we learn how to manage it- & spirit/spirits/souls will just 'grab the nearest cab' to hand when there's something to be done. So I don't feel it's a special talent, it's 'being available'.

Usually visions are just something / someone asking for my attention in a matter that is bothering them and it quickly becomes clear what is asked.

This one was different - I've been sitting on it since, unwilling to speak of it or lend it any reality. But given the way things are right now the symbolism feels relevant.

-Mid april 2022 I was watching the clouds rolling across the skies on a typically windy evening. At some point I tranced.

_____________________________________________

I saw a great eagle flying, criss-crossing the world pouring fire from its wings onto the helpless on the ground wherever it pleased.

An oriental man stood by and watched it.

The eagle however was burning up inside unnoticed and became stricken and fell to earth in flames. It's great carcass burned, flames licking through it's ribs. The earth was poisoned, the seas were poisoned, the young were dead in the womb, deformed, their skeletons twisted, a great miasma was abroad, and the skies were dark.

________________________________________________

I've not had a repeat and I don't know what it portends to. But I'm glad to not be holding it inside any more.

[taigawitch]

I keep journals, which I (sometimes) illustrate with what I see. This is from one of my journals.

The top is the appearance of a deceased person's spirit still 'on this side' as an orb. I can say that with confidence because I was called to work with this particular person's spirit later (when they asked for help crossing over - another story), and I'd not long woken from a 'working dream' where I had met them. (It is a rule -for me at least - that in dream state I cannot see the deceased who have 'crossed over' - I can be in their presence, but they will remain out of sight).

I sat in the dark watching the orb streak past as they took their leave.

The lower picture is how I see the signature 'wake' in the air afterwards, turbulent and wavy. It's like looking through a kelp forest in a storm.

[taigawitch]

Working as a Psychopomp (2)

Sometimes we are called to work with a living being (it is not always a human) as the end of their life approaches. I found I resisted this work strongly when I was younger- I identified very much with being a healer, fighting for life, rescuing injured animals. I had no taste for dealing with death. Life of course has its own view of what we are suited to, and healing is not just about overcoming a sickness.

It is a dance we engage with in partnership. We do it with humility, knowing that one day we will be dancing that same dance, in our own way as we face our own death.

One woman I worked with I visited with the evening she passed. She had already made her peace I knew from the work we had already done, and I was just walking beside her now. She was a sharp woman, and though age was beginning to take its toll on her mind she had taken ownership of her dying in that time.

That evening she had already slipped into unconsciousness and I sat quietly with her, holding space.

Her breathing changed, taking on a strong, almost urgent pattern.

Concerned for her I let the rhythm of her breath be like the beat of a drum and stepped into spirit. I found her inside a wide tower, climbing a staircase that wound up its inside. She was muttering and complaining about her knees as she trudged up the steps. I went to her. Do you need help I asked. She looked at me quite sharply and then replied 'No thank you, I am doing this myself'. She looked up and following her gaze I saw that though the tower was tall, at its top the stairs wound on, disappearing into 'the light'. I say 'the light' because once seen it is unmistakable.

I slipped back into this world, and sat with her, holding space until she passed.

[taigawitch]

Working as a Psychopomp (1)

A land healing.

Part of what we do is to help the passed on to move on to the next stage of their journey - not to linger in this, the middle world.

They can be family members, pets, animals in the wild, complete strangers, stuck souls.

We moved to a very wild feeling place. The land-wights were not exactly malign; 'challenging' might be the way to say it.

I claimed our place, and my allies saw to it our boundaries were seriously maintained. Our place was a haven.

Later, during a hands on healing working for a client I had a vision of the standing stones near us, then by them of a guardian spirit, dressed in a way that probably hasn't been seen round here for a millennium or two. Presenting as an older man -early sixties? dressed in a plain tunic, with foot bindings to the knee, he carried a staff and slung over his shoulder was a satchel with small pouches on the shoulder strap.

I wasn't entirely sure what the spirit wanted but he was insistent that the people needed to let go of something they had thought was important in life because it wasn't really.

I was called to do a working, but as I wasn't sure what was needed i let the spirit of my drum guide me, to where I needed to go. We stayed in the middle world in the valley we live in. A great darkness was in the west.

I lit a great fire, and placed a path to the darkness on the land that led to the fire. Many many souls started to move along the path, a bull was asked for to be slaughtered and burned. Once this was done the spirit of the land here appeared in the east and opened a great gateway through which light streamed . and the souls thronged along the path past the fire and through the gateway. Watching them I got the impression they had been killed in a battle.

The guardian spirit stood beside me and watched.

When the darkness in the west was emptied and the souls had passed through the gateway the spirit of the land closed it and the light reverted to daylight.

Since that working the land around us has felt far gentler; people have moved in- the crofts have been tenanted. The bothy is being redeveloped. Three new houses are being built. Children have come.

A year on, I went to visit a shaman I know about 100 miles south of here.

Unasked, he took me to see a Pictish stone. Carved on one face of it wàs a throng following a man in a tunic who was leading a bull.

I guess we were being told who they were.